


The Chain

by uv_duv



Series: Hell's Heart [8]
Category: What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Angst, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Choking, Horror, Love/Hate, M/M, Mind Games, Oral Sex, Painplay, Under-negotiated Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uv_duv/pseuds/uv_duv
Summary: ***I should have made this a chaptered work but it's too late now. Read the other parts first, there's a ton of necessary context.***Guillermo finally gets Nandor to open up to him in Abilene, Texas.“I’ve had to fight you tooth and nail for every scrap of... You still think it’s love?” Guillermo scoffed bitterly. Nandor frowned at him, obviously hurt.“...You were never just a familiar.”
Relationships: Guillermo de la Cruz/Nandor the Relentless
Series: Hell's Heart [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845076
Comments: 11
Kudos: 49





	The Chain

Nandor was dumbstruck, staring at the silver dagger buried in his chest, mouth agape, as he fell to his knees. He couldn’t bear to touch the dagger, his fingers sizzling with the attempt.

"Why, Guillermo…? Why?" he asked weakly. 

Guillermo glared at him before turning away.  _ You fucking know why. _ His arms shook. He balled his hands into fists at his sides, trying to stop the tremors. The hatred felt like a cold, hard halo. Looking up and breathing as deeply as he could, he saw nothing but infinite blackness as the freezing air tore at his throat. Even his breath was invisible. 

“Could you… pull out the dagger…?” Nandor coughed. Blood sputtered and steamed against the ice.

Guillermo didn’t respond.

“Please… please... it hurts so bad...”

Silence.

"Guillermo…"

Nothing.

“AT LEAST LOOK AT ME!” 

A single irritating tear trailed down Guillermo’s face. It stung in the frigid air. He screwed his eyes shut and wiped the tear away with a quick hand before he looked at Nandor again. His hair had fallen down, a shining black shroud, disparate strands in front of his agonized face. 

Nandor fell forward onto his hands, more blood spraying against the black ice as his back heaved with his horrid coughs. Guillermo watched him in silence. They locked eyes as Nandor took a deep breath. Biting his own lips hard enough to bleed, he suppressed a scream as he grasped the dagger and wrenched it out, more blood pouring onto the ice, pooling beneath him, marring the reflective sheen. Instantly dropping the dagger, he looked at his badly burned hand, the flesh refusing to heal.

“Fuck… Look at what you’ve done... It is agonizing...”

He held out his damaged hand to Guillermo, who looked at it impassively.  _ It’s been agony. It’s been agony for eleven excruciating fucking years… _

Nandor glared at him and then cradled his burned hand to his chest, near the dripping stab wound, sitting back on his thighs. His voice was hardly above a whisper.

“What do you fucking want from me?”

Guillermo surprised himself with the nearly automatic answer.

“Everything.”

Nandor frowned incredulously. “You won’t take anything that I offer you!" he yelled, slamming his good fist against the bloody black ice, "You pester me for sex, I offer it, and then you don't want it. You ask for the words, I give them, and now they're lies. You ask for us to dance and you ruin that too! I gave my blood for you--convinced fucking Laszlo--My body, my blood, my words, my time, my ears, my arms, my love, all of my love and you don’t fucking want it!" His mouth hung open, his desperation betrayed by his watery eyes.

Nandor hurled the knife into the void and shrieked, "You are fucking impossible!” A tear dripped into the blood beneath him. 

“I’ve had to fight you tooth and fucking nail for every single scrap of... You still think it’s love?” Guillermo scoffed bitterly.

Nandor scowled at him, obviously hurt.

“...You were never just a familiar.” 

Guillermo said nothing.  _ You’ve always treated me like an animal. _

“...Look, Guillermo... if you need to stab me and get this out of your system, then we can do this every day for a decade. If that’s what it takes for you to forgive me for what I’ve done, then I can add it to the pile of things I’ve given you,” Nandor said, sweeping his arms in front of himself as if to indicate a mountain of gifts instead of a gradually spreading pool of blood.

“That’s not what I want.” _ You can't give me what I want.  _

Nandor silently begged Guillermo with wretched, pitiful eyes. A torrent of acidic words flooded Guillermo’s mind, but he let them drain away along with the last remnants of his hope. He sighed with the weight of the truth.

_ This is over. _

Nandor dry heaved, curling forward violently, hands splayed across the blood-slick surface. Deep cracks fractured the smooth black ice in every direction, setting off a deafening, reverberating groan. Something gleamed between them in the air. Guillermo blinked, his eyes refocusing on it. There was a glittering black thread. It almost looked like a cut, slicing the pale light of the dark air with utter nothingness. 

“What is that..?” Guillermo asked, tilting his head, squinting.

“What’s what?” Nandor asked irritably, continuing to clutch his chest as he tried to stand. 

“There’s a black thread, I can just barely see it…” Guillermo said quietly, stepping towards it.

“...You enjoy playing with strings, I will be leaving...”

It was entrancing. Guillermo raised a curious hand and strummed the thread. Nandor stumbled back onto the ice. It vibrated like a power line. As Guillermo grasped the thread firmly, absolute terror coursed through him. But it wasn’t his own. 

_ Nandor. _

“It’s you, isn’t it,” Guillermo stated more than asked. He knew. 

“Don’t you fucking dare…”

Guillermo tugged the string with a smirk and everything disintegrated.

_ \-----  _

_ I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO. GIVE UP. YOU MUST HAVE AN INVITATION!  _

_ Sounds like a vampire-only rule. _

_ \----- _

Everything was still black when Guillermo solidified. Stretching out his limbs, Guillermo felt the cool surface of smooth stone surrounding him on all sides. He pushed against the top, the lid beginning to creak. But then a sinuous thick cord curled around his neck, choking him. Wedging his fingers under its edges, the texture of scales and organic movement shocked him; a gigantic snake was strangling him. The crushing tension wound his legs together, coiled around his arms, tightened against his belly, as though the dark itself was squeezing the life out of him. His vision blurred. 

\-----

He could just see the hazy edge of the bed, feel Nandor’s cool breath growling against the back of his neck, all of his limbs around him, tight as a vice. Nandor's voice was a harsh whisper. 

“Wake up, wake up, get out of my brains you conniving little sh--”

Guillermo closed his eyes and ignored him.

\-----

_ WAKE THE FUCK UP!!! YOU ARE BEING LIKE A STUBBORN SQUISHY BRICK! _

_ Stop, stop strangling… Nandor… _

_ I'M NOT CHOKING YOU. ALTHOUGH YOU DESERVE IT. I AM COMMANDING YOU TO GET OUT RIGHT NOW! _

_ \----- _

Guillermo clenched his hand and realized he was gripping another dagger. He wedged it between his thigh and the snake, cutting clean through it in one swift stroke. Guillermo pushed the lid open and crawled out of the sarcophagus. He stood in a stone tomb that he didn’t recognize. It was clearly very old, lit by an eerie pale glow, and the sarcophagus that he was entombed in was covered in ancient looking carvings of horses and soldiers in battle. The air was cold, dry, and stale. Dust clung to his socks. It was completely silent.

There was an archway leading to a pitch black corridor. It made the hair on the back of his neck rise.

\-----

The image of the crypt blurred and he could see Nandor’s enraged face. He was shaking Guillermo, angrily grunting. 

“Can you please fuck softer over there…? I am trying to sleep!” Nadja complained distantly.

Guillermo closed his eyes and clung to the image of the crypt with all of his will power. 

_ \----- _

_ HOW IN THE FUCK ARE YOU STILL ASLEEP?! _

_ I need to know. _

_ NEED TO KNOW WHAT?! I WILL TELL YOU. _

_ No, you won’t. You can’t. _

_ \----- _

Nandor materialized from the shadows of the crypt wearing gold plate armor over chainmail. Guillermo was only wearing black boxer briefs and a clean white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows. Nandor caught his gaze, his expression completely humorless. 

_ Guillermo did look cute like that…  _ A small blossom of affection bloomed in Nandor’s chest despite himself. 

A chill went down Guillermo’s spine. That wasn’t his thought. Those weren't his feelings. 

_ So, when you were in my head… You piece of shit.  _

Any reservations that Guillermo had about invading Nandor’s mind evaporated. It was one violation compared to countless others.  _ A mind for a mind.  _ He needed to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether Nandor ever regretted what he had done to him.

“Do not be afraid, Guillermo,” Nandor said, the urge to protect his soft little Guillermo taking root when he saw him shiver. “This was my crypt in Al Quolanudar…”  _ I have not been here in a very, very long time…  _ Nandor thought about the last time he was in Al Quolanudar, the flames consuming everything he had spent his life and death building. He sighed, letting the regret pass like sand through his fingers. 

“I’m not afraid. I’ve had plenty of nightmares.”

“This isn’t a nightmare, this is me,” Nandor clarified, blocking the archway.

_ It’s funny that you think those are different things,  _ Guillermo thought, regarding Nandor and considering his next move. He was surprised by the layers of Nandor’s emotions given his blank face under his helmet. Tightening screws of frustration burrowed into Nandor for bungling the dance again. He should have thought of a different move, dazzled Guillermo some new way instead of retreading old ground… Next there was terror at the prospect of Guillermo finally leaving him once and for all. Dreading what would be here, too. Nandor clenched his jaw and gripped the pommel of his sword with white knuckles, refusing to let the fear leak out through the chinks of his emotional armor. One benefit of being a vampire was not having a heart to betray you.

Nandor wanted to push a curl back behind Guillermo’s ear. Couldn’t stop looking at it. 

Guillermo took delicate, small steps down the shallow stairs of the dais surrounding the sarcophagus. He let his mouth fall open a little, his eyes wide, taking in the stunning ancient architecture of the burial chamber. It was decrepit now, but the bones were still gorgeous.

“Wow. It’s… beautiful,” Guillermo said, coating his words in wonder. He spun slowly, to drink in every angle, kicking up a little cloud of dust. 

_ Fuck, he’s beautiful,  _ Nandor thought, appreciating every curve. He wanted to touch him so bad... His attraction to Guillermo smelled like honey and sandalwood, felt like plush towels draping over Guillermo’s body. Especially his ass, Guillermo noticed.  _ That tracks.  _ Facing away from Nandor, Guillermo rolled his shoulders slowly, taking the time to stretch his neck before approaching him.  __

Nandor definitely liked that. His voice dropped low. “Well, of course, Guillermo... I was an incredibly powerful vampire…” 

His lust was like sweat, furs, and a wood fire. Guillermo put his hands on his breastplate and quietly asked, “Do you still have this? At the house, I mean…”

Nandor’s heart almost exploded with glittering hope. 

“You might have to help me find it…” he said huskily, his hands on Guillermo’s upper arms. Nandor was surprised that his tomb and old armor apparently impressed Guillermo so much, but didn’t want to question it either. To probe at something delicate and break it unwittingly. 

Guillermo gazed up at him from under his glasses, grinning wide, chuckling that he wouldn’t mind. Nandor’s relief was like opening a window to cool air while taking a hot shower. He languidly pushed a curl back behind Guillermo's ear, his palm brushing over Guillermo's stubble. As he looked at his lovely Guillermo, his brown eyes like warm inviting whirlpools, he thought how nice it would be to leave this place, return to the hotel, and take a relaxing bath together.  _ Maybe Guillermo could get rose petals...?  _

Guillermo swallowed, wetting his lips. “I’m sorry for stabbing you. I was just… really upset…” 

He stood on his tip toes, wrapping his arms around Nandor’s armor as Nandor leaned down to kiss him softly. Nandor's affection and joy at the touch of Guillermo's warm lips were like rose water and silk. Rolling down a grassy hill. 

Guillermo deepened the kiss, forming fists behind Nandor’s back.

_ What was one more lie? _

As Guillermo softly moaned into Nandor’s mouth, he wedged the crowbar into the side seam of Nandor’s back plate and wrenched it off, sending it clattering into the hallway. 

_ LITTLE BITCH!  _

Nandor's feelings of betrayal tasted like boiling black pitch. A door slamming shut. He swung around and pinned Guillermo against the wall, his eyes black flames. Guillermo retaliated by kicking Nandor back and prying off a shoulder pauldron. Nandor hissed at him and threw Guillermo into the sarcophagus, his head smacking against the stone. 

The lid slid over the top and sealed him in. Guillermo laid there in the dark for a moment, lightly knocking on the lid. 

“I am not budging! That--that was SO mean! You can be in the box or you can wake up!” Nandor yelled petulantly, his voice muffled by the stone. 

_ This little bitch is going to tear you apart. _

Guillermo kicked the lid off, bowling Nandor head over heels to the ground with a shocked gasp. The lid shattered, large pieces of carved stone cascading across the ground. Guillermo flung himself out of the sarcophagus in his old bloody trenchcoat and bandolier from the night of the theater. Grabbing the crowbar from the steps of the dais, he swung it against Nandor's helmet before he had time to get up, disorienting him long enough for Guillermo to rip off the other pauldron. Wedging his fingers under the lip of Nandor's helmet, Guillermo tore it off, yanking out black strands of Nandor's hair along with it. Nandor hissed again, clambering to his feet. Furious claws slashed the air to catch Guillermo, who evaded each swipe. 

Guillermo backed away behind him and then jumped on Nandor’s back, bracing himself by wrapping his hand in Nandor's hair. With his other hand, he wedged the crowbar between Nandor’s chain mail and his front breastplate, ripping it off with his full weight and throwing it into the dark hallway with a grunt. Nandor threw himself back against the wall of the crypt to crush Guillermo. The crowbar clattered to the stone tile below. Guillermo’s head swam with the second impact, his vision blurring to the hotel bed, but he clung stubbornly to Nandor's hair. To the crypt. 

Nandor heaved Guillermo over him and onto the steps of the dais, knocking the wind out of Guillermo. He kicked the crowbar into the hallway and then descended on Guillermo, pinning Guillermo's wrists above his head with one hand. They were both breathing hard, Nandor’s weight pushing Guillermo’s body into the stairs at uncomfortable points. 

Nandor was holding a stake over Guillermo’s heart. The rancid flavor of Nandor’s betrayal was cut with milky hesitation. He was desperate for Guillermo to concede.  _ Please, please, please don’t make me do this... _

“Leave and I will spare you. It will hurt. A lot,” he snarled. 

Guillermo gazed up at Nandor from under the curls of his hair, weighing what options he had left.  _ God above…  _ Nandor was a gorgeous nightmare. Baring his full fangs, his eyes gleamed black and gold and his thick hair flared down around him like a shimmering black lion’s mane. If he had to be slaughtered, Guillermo didn’t want Nandor to just skewer him with a stake. He wanted Nandor to tear him apart, eat him alive, enjoy every bite.  _ To be the flesh between his teeth… The blood dripping from his lips... _

Guillermo blinked, waking from his reverie. 

“Just fucking do it,” Guillermo spat at Nandor, cold hatred glinting at the edge of his words. They dug into Nandor’s heart like icy teeth. 

Guillermo braced himself for the final plunge of the stake, refusing to close his eyes even as Nandor closed his. Nandor hissed at him weakly, his fangs receding, his brown eyes returning.

“I can’t...” 

The stake clattered to the ground and Nandor’s head fell on Guillermo’s chest. 

\-----

Nandor released his grip around Guillermo’s wrists, his hand finding his way into one of Guillermo’s. The hand that dropped the stake settled on Guillermo’s shoulder. Guillermo stroked Nandor’s hair softly, shushing him, squeezing his hand reassuringly. Nandor’s warring feelings settled like the white flakes of a shaken snow globe at Guillermo’s calming touches. He propped his head up on Guillermo’s chest and looked at him with pleading, tired eyes.  _ Couldn’t we just wake up?  _ he thought. Nandor wanted that more than anything. 

Without any warning, Guillermo tugged Nandor into a harsh kiss. At first Nandor resisted, his suspicion rising up like a snake, but as Guillermo moaned and rocked against the scales of his chainmail and whined at him pulling away, it was only reasonable that Nandor’s resolve loosened like the buttons of Guillermo’s white shirt. The fur of Nandor’s coat collar was soft against Guillermo’s bare chest. 

_ He is tricking me… must be tricking me…  _ Nandor distantly thought. The fur and sweat and roses and sandalwood were joined with oily distrust and lingering corrugated spikes of resentment. A hint of despair, too. But then Guillermo writhed his erection against his leather trousers, bit Nandor’s neck, and whined, “Please, please… Can we?” in his neediest voice.

_ Hrggnnghalaa… _ Nandor’s lust overwhelmed everything else he was feeling like a blazing wildfire.

Faster than Guillermo could follow, Nandor put his coat underneath Guillermo. He tore Guillermo’s shirt off and Guillermo delighted in the feeling of the fur against his back and Nandor’s bare chest pressing against his as they kissed and ground into each other. Guillermo was so warm, smelled so fucking good…The dark flames of Guillermo’s own lust mixed with Nandor’s, with small flickers of doubt and occasional sharp pangs of betrayal, frustration, hate. It was hard to separate Nandor’s feelings from his own. They bit at each other, pulled each other’s hair, and moaned with all-consuming need for each other.

Nandor began trailing kisses and bites down Guillermo’s body, each of them equally delicious. Too much blood was smeared on Guillermo’s chest, but he realized it was dripping from an open wound in Nandor’s heart. Nandor dragged his hands down Guillermo’s sides, alternately stroking and scratching him, his smug confidence rich and buttery. Guillermo panted at the contrasting sensations of Nandor’s mouth and hands, hitching his hips when Nandor tore off his briefs and nuzzled his face against Guillermo’s aching cock. Nandor idly reflected how easy it was to excite Guillermo, smirking at memories of Guillermo grasping for him in the dark for mere kisses.  _ Finally letting me give you what you want... _ A hand slid up Guillermo’s throat as Nandor took Guillermo’s cock into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the head slowly. Guillermo watched Nandor from under hooded eyes. 

_ You deserve this,  _ Nandor thought. His eyes flickered up to Guillermo’s as he took Guillermo’s cock all the way down his throat, simultaneously tightening his fingers around Guillermo’s neck and choking him. Guillermo clenched his teeth to swallow his moans, but couldn’t help his heart kicking against his ribs.  _ Your heart will explode by the time I am done with you. _ Nandor’s spiteful playfulness was citrusy to Guillermo, with a dark edge of suffocating possessiveness like a necklace of black glass. Nandor purred around his cock but didn’t increase the speed, torturing Guillermo with his slow tempo. Guillermo clung to Nandor’s arm, that same hand crushing his windpipe delightfully. His eyes almost rolled into the back of his head despite himself. He knew Nandor was winning, somehow. Could it feel it in the way Nandor’s arrogance tasted like chocolate cake, the triumph of putting someone into checkmate, the texture of velvet and dark expensive wood.

Guillermo took a shuddering euphoric breath and let his arms fall slack at his sides as Nandor’s hand drifted away from his throat and down his stomach. A slick finger slid inside Guillermo and he whined obscenely from behind his closed mouth.  _ How did-- _ Another finger slid in.  _ Fffffrghlgha…  _ Guillermo bit his lip and furrowed his brow with overwhelming pleasure and stinging pain. He gripped the fur in his hand, his other hand wound in Nandor’s hair as he continued sucking Guillermo’s cock.  _ My Guillermo… So easy to unravel.  _ Nandor’s chuckling echoed in his mind. Guillermo felt like he was being lit on fire and then Nandor picked up the pace with his mouth and his fingers.

_ Oh God, oh my God…  _ Guillermo decided that he didn’t care that Nandor treated him like a toy. It felt so, so fucking good. It felt real. And it wasn’t over, just yet. He let the words tumble out of his mouth, screaming Nandor’s name over and over and almost ripping the fur up with his clenched hands.  _ You have always delighted me... _ Nandor admired his work, appreciating Guillermo’s full body blush, his blood pounding just under his skin, the way he writhed, the filthy words Guillermo couldn’t help but say... his petty pride was the curl of lips sipping especially delicious dark wine. 

Guillermo pulled Nandor off of him and came all over his face.

\-----

Guillermo laughed at Nandor’s incredulous expression. Nandor was stunned, the cum dripping from his chin onto the fur beneath them. 

Nandor finally managed to exclaim, “Guillermo!”

Guillermo smiled at him. 

“You… you stab me through the heart, you break into my brains, and you, you… Augh! How is there so much?! It's in my eyes!” Nandor complained, wiping at his face with his hands and flicking it onto the stone tiles with a disgusted sneer. His shock was the disorientation of missing a step walking down stairs. Of… well. His current situation.

Guillermo shrugged innocently and put on Nandor’s coat, which made little sparks of affection go off in Nandor’s mind. Crawling towards him, Guillermo produced a handkerchief and began to dab at his face, smoothing Nandor’s hair back. It reminded both of them of countless days and nights of Guillermo wiping blood off of Nandor’s face after he finished feeding. As Guillermo cleaned him, he noticed a thin trickle of blood slide down the edge of the sarcophagus in a perfectly straight line. He tilted Nandor's head the other way. The line cut the room in half, between Nandor and Guillermo, and continued down into the black corridor. 

Guillermo pulled Nandor into a tight embrace.

“Sorry.”

He plunged the wooden stake through Nandor’s back, piercing his heart. 

\-----

The floor disappeared under his feet and Guillermo fell and fell and fell through a seemingly infinite void, with Nandor’s body still clinging to him. He shoved it away a short distance but it continued falling nearby, Nandor’s hair flickering above him like a black candle flame, his body fluttering like a rag doll, his head bobbing with unseeing hooded eyes staring at Guillermo. Guillermo shuddered and looked away. 

A twinkling drop of blood fell between them. A dark ruby. 

He looked down. The drop of blood was an enormous distance away, glowing faintly. It felt like looking into a hole in the ocean, an impossible depth.

Guillermo blinked. 

The faint red glow spread and illuminated the mouth of an enormous hulking leviathan. The teeth were in concentric circular rows, pulsing with the slow breath of whatever unthinkable beast housed them. Guillermo stared into the maw, even though it nearly hurt to look at, an infernal mandala of dark teeth and gum tissue, unable to tell where it began or ended, let alone when he and Nandor would finally be devoured whole. 

There was nothing else.

\-----

_ I COULD SHRED YOUR MIND LIKE SPAGHETTI. _

_ You mean confetti. And you’re bluffing. None of this is real.  _

_ THE IMPORTANT PARTS ARE! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REACT WHEN YOU SPRAY AND SLAY?  _

_ How am I supposed to react when I don't know if you actually regret anything you've done to me? _

_ IS THAT WHAT THIS IS FUCKING ABOUT?! _

\-----

Guillermo's boots landed on cobblestones. Hands wove through his hair.

_ You--you--I should break your fucking neck... _

Guillermo whipped around and instinctually pulled the trigger on his crossbow. Nandor gargled and gasped, audibly collapsing to the ground. When Guillermo flicked on the mounted flashlight he saw stone walls surrounding him. The line of blood slinked along the ground and he followed it through the labyrinth. As he walked faster, the line of blood progressed faster. 

Claws stroked the nape of his neck.

_ So you are just going to follow the creepy line of blood into the dark…  _

Guillermo shot Nandor again and then sprinted down the hallway. He could hear another Nandor screeching and hissing behind him, getting closer and closer. The blood made a sudden right angle and Guillermo pivoted to follow it, while Nandor clearly crashed into a wall and yelped, “Fuck!” Guillermo fired behind him and heard Nandor's death rattle as he was punctured through the heart again. The blood led Guillermo deeper and deeper into catacombs, left, left, right, left, right; Nandor always stalking him in the shadows.

There was a woman. 

Guillermo froze. His ears started to ring. She was hunched over, gripping her stomach, a pale, blood-stained sheet dangling from her hips. Her long dark hair covered her face and her bare chest. She radiated utter hopelessness. The line of blood connected in midair to the blood dripping from her sheet. It reminded Guillermo of haunted houses he used to go to in high school, the horror movies he loved. Nandor's fear honestly surprised him.  _ Whatever.  _ He ran past her and she did nothing, but when Guillermo turned the corner she was standing at the very end of the hallway, barely visible at the edge of the darkness, the edge of Guillermo's light.  _ Alright, fine,  _ Guillermo thought, continuing to follow the line of blood and ignoring the persistent shade. She was around every corner, always watching him from the end of each hallway. 

As he got deeper into the labyrinth he passed other shades. The line of blood connected and then continued past people with torn faces, bent necks, hollowed eye sockets glistening with insects, and an old empty bathtub overflowing with blood.  _ Just illusions. _ It smelled more and more like corpses, but Guillermo was pretty used to that. The ringing in his ears sounded more and more like screams too, but he couldn't tell if it was a human or an animal. The flies were definitely a nuisance. The bleeding woman started whispering things he couldn't understand, another language maybe, and the longer he looked at her the more her flesh decayed. Nandor was always close behind him, leaping at him when he could, but repulsed by the shades. Guillermo used the shades strategically, diving behind them and shooting Nandor through the heart. It would delay the cycle for a few minutes before Nandor inevitably appeared again, terrified, furious, and desperate to keep Guillermo from something he wouldn't even willingly think about. Exactly what Guillermo was looking for, what he suspected was at the center of this bizarre maze, at the end of the line of blood.

When he turned another corner he hesitated. He was not used to the screaming people (were they screaming? or was it the sound in his mind?) he saw running towards him in slow motion, clogging the hallway with their bodies, shriveling and sizzling and burning from invisible flames, the bubbles of their boiling skin popping and turning red and then black, their eyes melting down their charred cheeks like egg white tears, the smell of burning hair and flesh, shiny black bodies curling in on themselves on the ground, their teeth chattering things Guillermo couldn't hear. He sprinted as hard as he could to get past all of them, weaving between their shivering bodies, but was surprised when they were solid, shrieking when he felt a bony hand grasp his calf. 

He fell to the ground. He frantically kicked at it, but as soon as he did, all of it, all of the burnt whispering bodies were just gone. There was nothing on his leg. A chill like a finger flicked up Guillermo’s spine. Jumping to his feet and retrieving the crossbow, he closed his eyes for a moment and tried not to hyperventilate, fishing his crucifix out from under his shirt.  _ It really couldn't hurt. _

Something fell from the ceiling and enveloped Guillermo's head.  _ Jesus Christ!  _ Guillermo pushed it off, recoiling at the slick slurping noise, and then shot at it with his crossbow, the rictus grin of the decayed head illuminated by his flashlight unflinching even as the arrow pierced its eye socket. It was attached to a chest cavity with rotting organs dangling out of it like the worst piñata… Guillermo was going to be sick, the heinous smell storming his sinuses and his throat and his eyes, bits still stuck to his face, in his hair, on his mouth... He put the crossbow down and hunched over to vomit, but began to choke on something sharp. 

The bleeding woman watched from the end of the hallway as he fished part of a hand bone out of his mouth.  _ Ughh…  _ There was more. He coughed, heaved, and watched as vertebrae, long metacarpals, the ends of ribs, the sharp rim of an iliac crest, gobs of flesh, too many body parts and bones and scraps of clothing from victims he had dismembered, and finally a wet tissue came out of him, all slicked with bile.  _ Fuck this so hard,  _ he thought, utterly disgusted and frustrated. He didn't care about any of this shit. He had to keep going. Had to. To make the horror worth something.

He shot Nandor again and then took a deep breath and focused on intense regret. A doorway opened in the wall. 

\----- __

The freaky long hallway was lined with torches. Guillermo could already tell from the silhouettes of shifting figures that more shades were waiting for him. He took a deep breath and muttered to himself that it’s not real _.  _ It’s all haunted house bullshit. It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real.

_ You could still wake up, you know. _ Nandor was standing right behind him. He flicked viscera off of Guillermo's shoulder. 

Guillermo sprinted ahead of Nandor, certain that if he kept looking, he would find some trace of their own past. Nandor pounced after him, knocking Guillermo to the ground. He whirled around and cut Nandor’s head off with his machete, Nandor’s blood spraying all over him, getting up in time to avoid another grasping shade. Carol hissed at him, her quills expanding.

“ _ Ssoaked in rrot… You rreek of death, sslayerr...”  _ she hissed, acidic bloody spittle dripping to the floor from her mouth. The longer Guillermo looked at her, the more her eyes deflated like leaking balloons and her skin turned gray and flaked off and crumbled and collapsed in on itself. 

The guard from the trial appeared next to her. And then the twins from the house. Guillermo held out his crucifix, but they were unphased. 

_ Hmph! Your puny little necklace doesn’t work on dead vampires. _

Guillermo backed into Nandor, who grasped for his hair. He plunged his holy knuckles into Nandor’s hands, who recoiled immediately, yelping in pain. Guillermo swept Nandor’s legs out from under him, staked Nandor, and then fired three shots from his crossbow, but the shades were gone. 

Guillermo ran as far as he could down the long hallway, staking, shooting, beheading Nandor when he reappeared, dodging shades of previous victims, human and vampire. He paused to catch his breath, wiping sweat from his forehead and whirling the flashlight around the hallway. He didn’t see anything, finally. But then Guillermo heard an unmistakable voice way too close.

“ **hI fIvE!!!** ”

Guillermo cut Topher in half with a broadsword and kicked his head into pulp under his boot until it was a wet slush.

_ How fucking long is this hallway?! _

He turned back around, thinking that maybe he lost the thread, missing a turn somewhere earlier, but the line of blood still continued past him. The stark light illuminated the ugly remnants of his path, at least a dozen of Nandor’s corpses littering the hallway, some staked to the wall, some headless, all turning towards Guillermo. Guillermo laughed hysterically.  _ Fuck me, I guess!  _

The ground shifted under Guillermo’s feet, steadily rising up like an ascending roller coaster. Guillermo scrambled to grab a torch before he tumbled backwards. The hallway became a pit, the bodies falling down below him with dull thuds. One of them collided with Guillermo and snapped the torch off the wall, sending him careening down onto the pile of corpses. More fell on top of him. It was suffocating. Their arms and legs and torsos were sandbags he had to shift, more obstacles, useless dead weight for his already exhausted arms to strain against. He finally got to the top dripping with sweat when a hand grabbed his ankle.

_ Don’t. _

Guillermo jerked his leg and wrenched himself free. The blood made a right turn into a tunnel a few feet above him. The screaming in his mind made his head ache but he still heard a poof behind him as he scaled the wall. He was about to pull himself up when a boot nudged his fingers menacingly. Guillermo heaved himself up between Nandor’s legs and kicked him into the pit before setting off, praying he was close to the end.

He walked through a much larger archway. The spacious room was circular, lined with other identical archways with a round stone dais in the center. Between the archways, torches burned with pale flames. The top half of the room was a reflection of the bottom half, exactly, even the flames burning upside down.  _ This has to be the end,  _ Guillermo thought, walking along the line of blood to the center of the circular platform on exhausted legs.  _ Has to... _

The line of blood congealed to a point in the center of the platform and spread out in a fading spiral, forming a solid crimson circle. Thirty or forty figures poured in from the archways, their bodies completely covered in crimson cloth, surrounding Guillermo in a perfectly spaced circle. Guillermo stood in the center of them all. The circle of blood formed spokes that connected with each of the figures. It was impossible to tell if they were facing him or not. All of the red figures screamed in unison, an ear-shattering wail that made Guillermo plug his ears. All but one melted into sand and the screeching stopped. 

Dark patches of mold grew on the red cloth of the final figure, eventually turning it a wet, sickly black. The figure lifted the veil with stiff necrotic arms to reveal a pale dead mouth. It hissed and then the black figure dissipated into smoke.  _ Elaheh? _

Everything eroded into swirling dust. 

\-----

When the dust settled, Guillermo’s feet had sunk into sand. There was a sunrise. It was beautiful. Pink and orange streaks stained the sky above dark blue dunes.

The sand shifted under Guillermo’s legs. He almost lost his balance but Nandor took his hand. Nandor stared out at the dunes, his face colored by the sunrise but otherwise slack. 

_ How long has it been…?  _ The longing came in waves, a deep yearning for something that was long gone and would never, ever be again. That was gone because of him. Nandor touched his neck, the last scar he was ever given. Wreaking unbelievable devastation for decades did nothing to salve the initial wound, two puncture marks, a sip of a foreign drink... only helped it to fester and rot until his wives grew sick of him, his children terrified of him, his own subjects later expelling him like a dead limb. Everything, everything, everything… he once had everything. Never knew who took it from him. Nothing would ever bring back what he once had. There was no use crying over it. It just… was the way it was.  _ My fault.  _

Guillermo fell to his knees with the weight of it. Crunched the cool sand in his fists, watched it drain away in dry rivulets like so many lifetimes. Centuries that he couldn’t fathom threw his own existence into an unbelievably tiny pinprick. A blink. 

“What… am I feeling…?”

Guillermo felt hollow, his mouth dry and his tongue thick and slow. Nandor crouched in front of him. He looked so, so tired.

“It is ruin, Guillermo.”

He reached for Guillermo, who fell into his arms. The weight lightened. Nandor pulled away, his face lit with fear. The bleeding woman stared at Guillermo from the edge of his vision.

__

“ _ Please please please wake up! _ ” Nandor begged frantically, shaking Guillermo by the arms, his eyes drifting from his face to his stomach. 

_ Please please please! Wake up wake up wake up!  _

“Hm?” Guillermo asked, confused.

_ I can’t I can’t I can’t--You must wake--! _

Guillermo looked down, following Nandor’s terrified gaze, and saw the line of blood slithering through the sand and crawling up the middle of his white shirt. It trailed up the midline of his torso, stopping at his sternum.

“ **_FUCK!!!_ ** ” 

A blazing hot knife sliced Guillermo open, his guts spilling onto the dunes. He screamed and screamed, paralyzed with shock.

“NO NO NO NO NO...!” Nandor was frantically grabbing what he could and shoving it back inside Guillermo. 

"There's sand! You can't just--there's so much fucking sand!"

Guillermo was waving his shaking arms around in a useless panic. They were both completely hysterical, Nandor's absolute horror only compounding Guillermo's. 

“I’m sorry! I'm so fucking sorry! I’m so sorry, John!”

“WHO THE FUCK IS JOHN?!” Guillermo shrieked. It echoed across the desert.

Nandor tackled him and sunk both of them into the sand.

\-----

The pain vanished. Guillermo and Nandor were back in the crypt. 

"That was horrible...” Nandor checked Guillermo’s stomach and then clutched him tight. They were both shaking.

“I had to actually feel it…” Guillermo muttered weakly, his heart palpitating violently. He crushed Nandor’s coat in his hands, buried his head in his chest, shuddering uncontrollably in his arms. 

“I know. I am so sorry. But please… I will try to help you find whatever it is you are seeking.”  _ Anything to end this... _

Guillermo took a few deep breaths against Nandor’s chest until he was sure he could stand on his own. The bleeding woman was sitting in the sarcophagus, staring at them. Guillermo ignored her as he unbuttoned his sleeves behind Nandor’s back and turned his wrists up to Nandor, revealing his wrist scars. They started to bleed. 

_ Fuck,  _ they both thought.

They sunk into a black ocean.

\-----

Guillermo couldn’t see a thing in the dark water. It seemed infinite. The water formed a vortex. No matter how much he kicked and struggled, the whirlpool inexorably pulled him down to a black point.

He was surrounded by fur in the dark. He knew it well. Nandor’s coffin. The lid of the coffin opened on its own and the line of blood climbed over the edge, spilling down the side, slinking along the floor, under the door. As Guillermo followed it, the rest of the house was a vague suggestion of haze, the entrance to his closet room the only part remaining concrete. The curtain was a cape. Guillermo stepped through the heavy cape, only to find more layers of capes, navigating through all of them to find himself in an infinite white misty void, the ground covered in gold glitter, his little bed at the center perched above a luxurious fur throw. It was warm. It was… nice.

The blood dripped up through the air onto his bed. He sat down next to it. The bleeding woman peered at him from behind the capes at the threshold, a good distance away. Nandor appeared, sitting on the bed next to Guillermo, on the other side of the line. Nandor was trying very hard to let go of what he saw in the desert. For Guillermo’s sake. He looked down, admiring the pretty glitter, his hands folded in his lap. Guillermo traced the profile of his prominent nose, his soft lips, his bearded chin… he had an entirely new appreciation for how much was hiding underneath such beautiful features.

They both stood up in shock when someone groaned behind them in the bed.

Nandor blocked Guillermo with his body automatically. He would die before he let anything happen to Guillermo again. Guillermo put a soothing hand on Nandor’s back and walked around to look. To finally see.

Himself.

He saw himself laying on top of the bed. Blood poured from the shade’s wrists and the cut on his left hand, from an incident that happened when Guillermo was 24 years old. The young, pale Guillermo moaned pathetically. Guillermo stared in abject horror when his own eyes looked up at him, bleary, the light nearly gone. He had never, ever seen another victim come back from this point.  _ It was so, so close... _

The line of blood dripped from the shade’s wrists and formed another line that slithered up and connected with Guillermo’s still-bleeding wrist scars. All of Guillermo’s scars started bleeding at once, the blood glowing faintly under his white shirt in the dim light of the strange mist. Bites, cuts, scars, accidental and otherwise, were all over his body from a decade of bleeding himself dry in service to Nandor. The image of the glittering white void was interlaced with that of the dark, ancient crypt, the stones pulsing red at the same rhythm as his scars before fading back to white mist and golden glitter.

Something inside Nandor creaked, cracked, and finally, finally collapsed.

A tsunami of guilt, terror, rage, frustration, agony, and affection hit Guillermo all at once. He was swallowed whole, reliving how terrified Nandor was, realizing how deep the sprout of Guillermo had already rooted even years ago. That Nandor had pulled at what he assumed was a tiny weed and found that it had completely infected him. That nothing he did could get it to stop growing. That it somehow found all of his cracks. And even now, was standing in front of him and had somehow broken through to his mind after conquering his heart. 

Nandor berated himself. How could he have come so, so close to losing Guillermo? Another slimy coil of guilt in his gut reminded him that it was completely his own doing... Trying to prove his aloofness and nearly taking Guillermo and a piece of himself with it. Was that even a distinction he could make anymore?

The Guillermo shade aged before their eyes, accumulating more and more injuries from his time with Nandor, culminating in his body broken like a limp ragdoll from the fall, limbs bent into wrong angles. The feelings just kept coming, dragging Guillermo down, wave after wave after wave.

Nandor clung to Guillermo and then a blinding gold light overtook everything. 

Guillermo felt suspended, his feet dangling below him uselessly. The light seared Guillermo’s eyes, rang in his ears like bells, like war drums, like throats screaming themselves raw. It was blazing, pulsing, tearing at Guillermo's flesh like a maelstrom of violent wind and flames. Like he was in the core of the sun. He covered his face with his hands but it somehow filled his mouth until it overflowed like a river. It was agony. It was regret. It was aching desire and insecurity and frustration and denial and need. Protectiveness. Possessiveness. It was all unbearable, the scorching heat and tidal push and pull threatening to rip him apart like a star in the relentless grip of a black hole. 

It was Nandor.

_ \--LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I-- _

Everything crystallized into a single point.

_ I AM SORRY. _

There was nothing else to say.

\-----

When Guillermo looked around, they were alone in the fancy room again, the furniture cleared like before. No candles were lit. The barest hint of light came in from a sunset. There was no music. Nandor clung to Guillermo, his hands balled into fists in the fabric of his white shirt, crying silently as he rocked Guillermo in place. It was hardly a dance, but Guillermo moved with him, stroking his back as he cried himself. 

Nandor was afraid of letting him go. That if he did, he would lose him. Forever, this time. He had failed to protect him, again. Couldn’t keep him out. Had let him get sliced open in the sand and fruitlessly tried to put him back together.  _ Some things you cannot come back from.  _ He knew that well. The meaning of unforgivable, unsalvageable, unlovable. 

One thing occurred to Nandor.

“Guillermo…” Nandor managed between gulping sobs, “Uh… Putting this on the table…”

“H-huh?” Guillermo stuttered.

“How would you feel if I--ah, if I mindwiped both of us…? We could just… forget all of this… It would be fair, both of us...”

Guillermo hugged him even tighter.

“You can’t…”

“...No?” 

“Because…” Guillermo buried his face into Nandor’s hair, “If you do that… I won’t forgive you anymore...”

Nandor cried even harder in his arms, Guillermo never letting him go. 

\-----

After some time, Nandor gave Guillermo a wet kiss as they both wept, their hands in each other’s hair. Nandor frowned and pulled a tooth from Guillermo's mouth. Guillermo reassured him that it wasn't his and Nandor flicked it away with a small "yeurgh".

Guillermo swayed slowly in his arms and just looked at him. Looked at Nandor, in the shadows of the fancy room, who had done so much to him. Whose heart he had burrowed into and cracked open and found himself. 

“What are you thinking, Guillermo?” Nandor asked gently. 

“I just--I’ve never seen you cry before…”

Nandor sniffed and chuckled weakly, sending more tears down his face.

“Yes, you have.”

Guillermo scoffed softly and held Nandor’s hands in his own. Nandor fiddled with the golden ring on Guillermo’s left thumb with a small smile.

\-----

**Author's Note:**

> What a journey.
> 
> "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac is an amazing song.
> 
> Thank you much to chels for beta-ing! Interrobang, sinaesthete, chels, and so many others on the Nandermo Discord for being wonderful dark influences. <3
> 
> Thank you for reading. I made myself cry writing this so I hope you enjoy/suffer.


End file.
